Swedes institute draft for males and females
Fox News reports that Sweden has instituted a draft that will require service from both men and women similar to that of their neighbor, Norway;
About 20,000 people now work for the Swedish armed forces, 84 percent of them men and 16 percent women, according to the force’s website. But the armed forces lack 1,000 active troops as well as 7,000 reservists, according to Sweden’s coalition government of Social Democrats and Greens.
Under the plan approved Thursday, at least 4,000 18-year-olds could be called up each year. Enrollment should be made possible from July 1, and basic military training with compulsory service from Jan. 1. Swedes will still be able to volunteer for military service.
Sweden expects eventually that 13,000 young people will be called upon and 4,000 will be enrolled.
The Swedes had ended compulsory service in 2010 after 109 years, but their concerns about security in the region has revitalized the program. They’ll still be able to volunteer for the military, but volunteers aren’t showing up lately.
Thanks to Mick for the link.
Category: Politics
Think the muslims will be drafted or just transfer to isis?
Long overdue here IMO, at least in terms of the requirement to register.
Draft =/= “automatically assigned to a combat arms MOS”. Needs of the service and individual aptitudes can always be used to determine the specialty assigned.
It’s also not incompatible with restricting combat arms specialties to being all-male, as was done previously.
I still think the draft isn’t a terrible thing, more people having to serve and seeing what happens when you serve connects the military to the civilian world in a way that professional soldiers never do…the more people that are intimately aware of what happens to our military personnel the more likely we are as a society to respect that service with more than lip service and to develop a policy that dictates more appropriate use of the military when we intend to place them in harm’s way.
Right now there’s a lot of lip service about supporting the troops, people thanking you for your service and all the while the government changing your benefits programs with nary a whisper from the same folks who want to buy you a burger…
I’ve seen the whole pro vs draftee argument and while I find it has validity at some point what do we do when we have so few people serving we are obligated to redeploy them 3, 4, or more times to fulfill the mission? When we are engaged in a never ending war the need for personnel will not diminish anytime soon.
Compare and contrast this post with your post about how America has lost its freedoms? I don’t disagree but the tones of the two posts seem diametrically opposite to me. Not an easy question to resolve.
Not at all. With great freedoms come great responsibilities
Who appreciates freedom, or the lack thereof, more than those who’ve agreed to put their life on the line for an ideal based on that premise?
Most veterans are not big government fans, they tend to value independence and freedom of action as a group (not all but a majority) and consequently if more are available to be legislators hopefully reducing government and its interference with our freedoms might be a priority. More likely than if we have a continuation of the ruling elite looking to add ever more rules and regulations to our lives.
But VOV, little Billy has such a bright future ahead of him. How can he “serve” with “those people”? The draft works only for those who are connected enough to avoid the draft. Get rid of deferments, like the ones the big dog, Shotgun Cheney and the current CIC used to avoid service and I’ll be all in. Otherwise nothing changes, the middle and lower economic classes will round out the force while the “ahoy Piloy” crowd will sit it out at Harvard, Oxford and the DPRB (People’s Democratic Republic of Berkeley). If the economy turns north and more people exercise their right to choose by not reenlisting maybe somebody might take notice. USAF already has a pilot shortage (or so they say, prolly just pimping congress for another golf course). Nobody seems to worked up over that.
PDRB, for crying out loud.
The upper quintile of wealth and income is significantly -over- represented in the US Armed Forces relative to population numbers.
Not the bottom quintile, the -top- quintile. This has been true for many decades. But the lefties continue to libel both the US Armed Forces and those who choose to serve. It is a profession and a calling, not welfare and a dumping ground.
Libel, and a cheap and lazy one at that.
I’d say we get the
folks we get because it is a calling and a profession. We’re not talking about the all volunteer force here though 11B, we’re talking about draftees. How are you going to draft quality? My argumemt isn’t some “lefty” talking point that smears anybody serving. My point is about forcing people who have no desire to serve, into serving, regardless of rating or MOS. Existential national threat? Yes, draft. Peace time and lower level conflicts, maybe not so much.
With those current numbers–which couldn’t fill Fenway Park–this is would probably be best termed a jobs program. The Swiss Guard is cool. Swiss army knives, watches, and chocolate are too. The Swiss army? A bump in the road of an invading army.
We’re talking Swedes here (ABBA, Volvo), not Swiss (Army knives, yodeling)…
Oh. Dammit. Sweden=sex. Swiss=cheese. Got it.
It’s okay because they do have one thing in common, both militaries are relatively irrelevant to world military strategies….neither will impact the outcome of any major global conflict in the future.
CHEZZ!!!
Switzerland=difficult terrain for invaders + a certain degree of active collaboration
Sweden=craven neutrality + years of preening moral superiority during the peace bought by the sacrifice of those they look down upon.
Well, but with the French, you get both cheese and sex, plus wine.
What’s the problem?
C’est bon!
Vraiment!!
Smelled french chick armpit lately? That’s a problem that even deployment hot can’t overcome
And meatballs. Don’t forget the meatballs.
They do make a fine meatball.
I just spit out my coffee, dude the swiss guard is probable better than the Swedish guard, just saying
And they make some damn fine weapons. Besides, no one is going to invade, that is where all the Tranzies, Dictators, terrorists and Democrats hide their money!
Maybe they can start using their military for some internal security work. Unless the draft inducts a bunch of Mohammeds, Muhamet, Faisal etc.
Actually that might significantly reduce some of their problems. Announce that all immigrants and refugees are subject to call up.
A country the size of Sweden with only 20K
Pathetic
More European freeloading
I was in love with every Swedish female soldier on Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo. Holy Christ, they got some lookers.
When I was in Afghanistan in 2003 it was the Spanish Army that had the hotties on BAF.
I have no issues with requiring Selective Service registration in this country for both women and men.
I ran in to a young guy at the bus stop yesterday who said he was in the Puerto Rican National Guard and had been called to AD. We have a lot of volunteers now, for which I’m grateful, but there’s no sense of obligation to anyone except themselves in far too many people in the younger crowd.
I fail to understand what the issue would be with drafting women in this country, aside from the automatic howling on the lefties’ part, always over nothing.
It’s almost like the Lefties want all the rights without taking any of the responsibilities. Wonder why that is?
To me, it would represent real equality, but to them, it’s a violation of their right to be spoiled brats.
I think it was put best above, everyone assumes “the draft” just puts people in combat arms, It is not thought of as filling any other MOS. Maybe the solution is to reinstitute a shorter term male and female draft – say for a year? – and allocate the draftees throughout the three large services (draftees in the Marines may not work well!). Offer some form of college help to go with it, maybe? Alternative service for folks who don’t want to do military, something like Americorps? Just throwing ideas around here.
I have no problem with women being drafted. That is real equality. My son had to register but my daughter didn’t. It would be a hoot seeing Little Miss Art School doing a ruck march. But knowing her she would finish and name her ruck Gloria or some such. Wacky Kid!
According to my Google-Fu, Sweden has a population of around 9.5 million. A “draft” of 4,000?
You can’t fill 4,000 (presumably decent paying) jobs by offering incentives?
You can’t get .0004% of the population to volunteer?
If conscription was universal, I could see it being a rite of passage, as it was in many European countries during the Cold War. But a “draft” that small isn’t a draft, it’s a reverse lottery.
“Sven, Peter, Ingrid: You get to go to college and do whatever you want with your life. Olaf? Sorry dude, you drew the short straw. Report to the barber shop for a haircut and then it’s off to basic training for you!”
Doesn’t seem like a smart way to build a military to me.
Sorry that percentage above should be .04% of the population. My bad.
Sweden is very liberal for the most part… I’m sure there will be exemptions for certain groups. The refugees (aka Radical Islamic Terrorists) will probably be permitted to “enlist” in a group of their choosing and get credit for serving!
See you local recruiter today and sign up to travel to exotic places, kill people, and stake your claim on 72 virgins…